A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature Edited by Garry L. Hagberg and Walter Jost A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature Blackwell Companions to Philosophy This outstanding student reference series offers a comprehensive and authoritative survey of philosophy as a whole. Written by today’s leading philosophers, each volume provides lucid and engaging coverage of the key figures, terms, topics, and problems of the field. Taken together, the volumes provide the ideal basis for course use, representing an unparalleled work of refer- ence for students and specialists alike. Already published in the series: 24. A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages 1. The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, Edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia and Second Edition Timothy B. Noone Edited by Nicholas Bunnin and Eric Tsui-James 25. A Companion to African-American Philosophy 2. A Companion to Ethics Edited by Tommy L. Lott and John P. 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Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Garry L. Hagberg and Walter Jost to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. 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If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A companion to the philosophy of literature / edited by Garry L. Hagberg and Walter Jost. p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-4170-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Literature–History and criticism. 2. Literature–Philosophy. I. Hagberg, Garry, 1952– II. Jost, Walter, 1951– PN501.C626 2010 801–dc22 2009018607 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10/13pt Photina by Graphicraft Limted, Hong Kong Printed in Singapore 01 2010 Contents Notes on Contributors viii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Garry L. Hagberg and Walter Jost Part I Relations between Philosophy and Literature 5 1 Philosophy as Literature and More than Literature 7 Richard Shusterman 2 Philosophy and Literature: Friends of the Earth? 22 Roger A. Shiner 3 Philosophy and Literature – and Rhetoric: Adventures in Polytopia 38 Walter Jost 4 Philosophy and/as/of Literature 52 Arthur C. Danto Part II Emotional Engagement and the Experience of Reading 69 5 Emotion and the Understanding of Narrative 71 Jenefer Robinson 6 Feeling Fictions 93 Roger Scruton 7 The Experience of Reading 106 Peter Kivy 8 Self-Defining Reading: Literature and the Constitution of Personhood 120 Garry L. Hagberg v contents Part III Philosophy, Tragedy, and Literary Form 159 9 Tragedy and Philosophy 161 Anthony J. Cascardi 10 Iago’s Elenchus: Shakespeare, Othello, and the Platonic Inheritance 174 M. W. Rowe 11 Catharsis 193 Jonathan Lear 12 Passion, Counter-Passion, Catharsis: Flaubert (and Beckett) on Feeling Nothing 218 Joshua Landy Part IV Literature and the Moral Life 239 13 Perceptive Equilibrium: Literary Theory and Ethical Theory 241 Martha C. Nussbaum 14 Henry James, Moral Philosophers, Moralism 268 Cora Diamond 15 Literature and the Idea of Morality 285 Eileen John 16 Styles of Self-Absorption 300 Daniel Brudney Part V Narrative and the Question of Literary Truth 329 17 Narration, Imitation, and Point of View 331 Gregory Currie 18 How and What We Can Learn from Fiction 350 Mitchell Green 19 Literature and Truth 367 Peter Lamarque 20 Truth in Poetry: Particulars and Universals 385 Richard Eldridge Part VI Intention and Biography in Criticism 399 21 Authorial Intention and the Varieties of Intentionalism 401 Paisley Livingston vi contents 22 Art as Techne, or, The Intentional Fallacy and the Unfinished Project of Formalism 420 Henry Staten 23 Biography in Literary Criticism 436 Stein Haugom Olsen 24 Getting Inside Heisenberg’s Head 453 Ray Monk Part VII On Literary Language 465 25 Wittgenstein and Literary Language 467 Jon Cook and Rupert Read 26 Exemplification and Expression 491 Charles Altieri 27 At Play in the Fields of Metaphor 507 Ted Cohen 28 Macbeth Appalled 521 Stanley Cavell Index 541 vii Notes on Contributors Charles Altieri teaches modern poetry and literary theory at the University of California, Berkeley. His two most recent books are The Particulars of Rapture and The Art of Modernist American Poetry. He is working on a book on Wallace Stevens. Daniel Brudney is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Marx’s Attempt to Leave Philosophy. His work in philosophy and literature includes “Lord Jim and Moral Judgment: Literature and Moral Philosophy,” in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and “Marlow’s Morality,” in Philosophy and Literature.